Jaina Narayana Gudi, Pattadakal

This monument is is seldom visited by tourists because of its location. Though it is just a few meters away from the main road, it is situated on a narrow road, parking a large MPV or a bus is not really convenient. Hence a few tourists traveling by car may stop to see this monument restored between 2002 and 2004. My previous visit here was Aug 2010, that's 13 years ago. In those thirteen years I'd passed by this place half a dozen times, somehow I didn't bother giving it another visit.

Aug 29, 2023. This visit was mainly to show the Chalukyan realm to Srinu, my friend from Hyderabad. We had left Dharwad early morning, reached Badami around 9 am. First we saw the rock-cut temples on the southern side and then went to the northern side where we saw Bhootnath group and then climbed the hill from the path used mostly by cattle-herds and local people. We spent about hour on the hill, saw the Shivalayas, the royal Mantapas and descended the hill. From Badami we drove to Shivayogi mandir where we took a break. We had homemade jolada rotti & sprouts for lunch followed by a short nap. As we approached Pattadakal, I thought we must see the Jaina Narayana Gudi before going to the main complex. Here we are looking at recently restored monument.

A information board planted close to the temple reads as below:
Jaina temple
This east-facing Jaina temple built in Dravida style is assigned to the Rashtrakuta period, and probably dates from 9th century. It was raised beside an earlier brick temple of Jina. The temple comprises of a large porch, a hall and a sanctuary with an ambulatory around. Its basement mouldings, wall pilasters and columns, the hara parapet, etc., conform to Dravida tradition. An additional sanctuary over the ground storey is a feature noticed in some Jaina temples, such as those found in Hallur, Lakkundi and Shravanabelagola. Tirthankara images from both the sanctuaries are missing. Noteworthy in the temple are the sculptures of two large elephants with riders in the porch that flank the doorway of the hall. A small figure of Jaina Tirthankara on the northern side confirms the temple's Jaina association.

The temple's side walls are almost plain except for a couple of windows, one each for Sabhamantapa and circumambulatory around the Garbhagudi.

This temple actually has two Garbhagudi positioned one above the other. The upper Gabhagudi is not visible from the ground level. This type of construction is called Dvi-tala Vimana.

The structure looks small and simple in this view. The Shikhara is completely out of view. A balustraded staircase leads up to the portico (Mukhamantapa). There are twelve turned pillars supporting this space's roof.

The Sabhamanatapa door is flanked by life-size elephants with mahouts. This is the only temple in the Badami Chalukyan realm having such a sculpture which is typically Rashtrakutan.

The doorframe is quite simple. There's no lalatha-bindhu (central block) in the lintel. Usually doorframes have a central block showing Gajalakshmi in Shiva or Vishnu temples. In case of Jain Basadi, the central block would have an icon of seated Mahaveera.

This is the Sabha Mantapa. The stout pillars indicate this is an early design. Similar type of pillars can be seen at Sangamaeshwar Gudi, Mallikarjuna Gudi and Kasi Visveswara Gudi in the main complex. The interior of this temple had a strong odor of bat droppings, in fact the Sabhamantapa floor was littered with droppings. The smell was overpowering, discouraged me from venturing deeper into the temple.

As we step across the door into the Sabhamantapa, on the right hand side is this leaning stone block. This is an ancient stone ladder which was used to climb upto the upper sanctum. I asked the guard if tourists were allowed to climb up. No. I was really curious to see how the roof was. Unfortunately ASI has its rules.

A diagonal view of the ladder. The ladder has 8 or 9 steps, each step at least a foot high. The ladder is placed in a stone block approximately one and half feet high. Adding up the inches, floor to ceiling height is about 12 feet. This ladder looks simple but making it involves a lot of geometrical calculations. There are three more ladders I've seen, they are at three different temples in Aihole. One could check out the four ladders under one article- stone step-ladders in Chalukyan temples.

The stone ladder and the temple door. Light and shadow create interesting views in here.

Here's a view of the sanctum with a Shivalinga. I have to say that this is an inactive temple, this Shivalinga made its way into this temple at some point of time when Shivaivites were dominating the social structure.

As per the booklet on Pattadakal by Archaeological Survey of India, this temple was built  during the Rashtrakuta Krishna II (878 to 914 CE).

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